The mayor of Kamloops says he doesn’t think the full impact of COVID-19 has been felt yet in the real estate sector.
Ken Christian was commenting after single-family home prices in Kamloops hit a record in the month of May of nearly $537,000. That’s despite the number of home sales being nearly cut in half in April and May compared to normal.
“That will trickle into Kamloops, because it will affect the Lower Mainland first and a lot of off-shore buyers there won’t be coming with the regularity that they were. That in turn will affect people in the Lower Mainland from selling out and buying up in the Interior,” Christian says.
“That will take some time to occur. But Kamloops is still a bargain and still a great city. And I think people who do their homework and have a solid business case will come to that realization.”
The Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation thinks that home prices in the country will drop between nine and 18 per cent on average in the next 12 months.
However, other real estate agencies have more optimistic outlooks.